Roman Josi

The New York Islanders played host to their former coach Peter Laviolette and the Nashville Predators, who are currently sporting the best record in the National Hockey League. But the Islanders would prevail as the best team on the ice, battling their way to a 5-2 win at Nassau Coliseum.

As the Blackhawks played their final game of 2014 - and their last game before the Winter Classic - it was a roller coaster game against the Nashville Predators.

First came the deep plunge of going down 3-0 in the first half of the game. Roman Josi opened up Nashville's scoring on an even-handed goal at 11:50. Craig Smith would stretch out the lead to 2-0 at 17:12. Finally, ten minutes of play later, James Neal would score his first of the night to make it 3-0.

But the Blackhawks weren't about to lay down and take it. Brad Richards scored a few minutes later to get the Blackhawks on the board, 3-1. Andrew Shaw would have his first goal in several games to mak...

I tying goal in the final minutes looked eerily familiar to Tuesday's game.

But failure to get the second point in the shootout ended the Flyers bid at a second straight comeback win as they lost 4-3 to the Predators on Thursday. They walked away with the loser point, which dropped their record to 24-19-5 and keeping them in a tie for second place with the Rangers.

Getting that first point, though, showed the fighting nature this Flyers team has had in recent games. Third period comebacks have become a dangerous aspect of the Flyers recent play.

The Hawks looked to keep rolling as they travelled to Nashville to face off against the Predators and former Hawks Carter Hutton and Viktor Stalberg. The last time the Hawks played in the Nashville rink this season, they were thoroughly beaten 7-2, but tonight walked away with a 3-1 win. Bryan Bickell made his return after missing roughly a month with a lower body injury, while Antti Raanta made 27 saves and Patrick Kane scored his team-leading 20th goal in the victory.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Undoubtedly, hockey fans thought back to this adage in 2004: For the second time under Gary Bettman the league suffered a work stoppage.

When all seemed glitzy and good following the '04-'05 lost season, Roger Daltrey’s belted chorus “We won’t get fooled again” was apropos.

Fast forward seven years and we are staring another lockout in the face. Blame Bettman all you want- indeed all of this has transpired under his watch- but there is a greater problem underlying the Collective Bargaining Agreements.

When the league locked out in 2004 the main issue (and there were plenty) was the gr...

Dustin Brown was held to just one goal coming off the heels of his hat trick Saturday night. (Photo courtesy of Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)

The Kings had previously recorded four goals last Wednesday night against Colorado, an offensive output which they have only eclipsed three other times all season long. On this night however, inconsistency reared its ugly head once again as the team netted only one in a 2-1 loss against the Nashville Predators.

Of course, it certainly didn’t hurt the Predators to place Pekka Rinne between the pipes for one of his finest performances of the season. The Finnish goaltend...